Is Your Fitness Tracker Making You Fatter?

If you're like me, you've got a fitness tracker strapped to your wrist. But is that device actually making you gain weight, instead of losing it?

That's what the results of a new study out this week seems to say. According to this NPR story, when a group of 470 people were put on a low-calorie diet and asked to exercise. The story says after two years, they all had lost weight.

But the group of participants who weren't wearing fitness trackers and only self-reported their activity, actually lost MORE weight than those who wore the trackers! How's that possible, you ask?

Well, the story says, basically, if you see how many steps you've taken, you're more likely to 'reward' yourself more often (with, say, an extra donut out of that box at work), thinking that you already 'got your workout in' for the day.

"People would say, 'Oh, I exercised a lot today, now I can eat more.' And they might eat more than they otherwise would have," one researcher said in the story. It also noted that trackers can have a negative effect on some participants, especially on days when you don't your hit your workout goal.

It makes sense, I guess. But for me, wearing a fitness tracker seems to work. My wife got me a Fitbit Charge HR back in May, and I've been diligently trying to hit my 10,000 steps a day since then. Most weeks I usually hit that goal 5 or 6 days out of 7. But I don't think its necessarily given license to eat more; on the contrary, I've found that it HAS gotten me out walking more than I did before. So, overall, it appears to be a good thing, at least for me.

Do you wear a fitness tracker-- and, if you do, how's it worked for you?